This is an interesting article by Martin Samuel of how the FFP makes our club virtually unsellable and how it protects the elite. It’s what we’ve all thought for a while but seeing it laid bare in black and white makes for depressing reading.

We could easily be fighting at the top of the league if we had clever people running the club. Yes spending 300 mil in one season on the best players around seems to be the way to do it now, which will never happen to us but Your telling me that in all the thousands and thousands of footballers around the world we couldnt build an exciting young team with a squad full of benteke type players. Players that are young and have REAL potential, players we could snap up for 6,7 mil not on massive wages? It can be done, quite easily. We just don’t have the staff or the willingness to scout the depths of the earth to find the talent. so really a buyer shouldn’t be put off us because of FFP rules at all, as being clever and working hard behind the scenes can be just as rewarding as spending 300 odd mill.

The problem is if we signed 11 Benteke type bargains tomorrow how long would it be before they go elsewhere. One good season in the prem and teams like city etc can double or treble their wages in a heart beat. So unless the new owner is prepared to match that we will always be more of a Southampton than an arsenal

That’s true, but if we did manage the unthinkable and assemble a great squad and be challenging, sponsorship would increase, attendances would increase etc so revenue would ultimately rise meaning higher wages could be offered. It’s just wishful thinking I know!

True but initially a new owner would have to stick up 2 fingers to ffp for a couple of years and take the hit. After that we can become a bit more self efficient. For example if we did something radical and signed Messi and paid him £500k per week think what that would do for our club. Shirt sales would quadruple not just at VP but globally, the club would be put on the global map, more fans would pack out vp and 60,000 (assuming capacity allows it) would be more than doable. Remember this is a club that got 60,000 for a league cup match with utd when we were in the third division ffs!!! Messi in the side may not win us anything but like you say sponsorship would quadruple, and more importantly Birmingham becomes a cool city like Manchester and other top foreigners will want to join especially if Messi plays alongside them. I know this sounds far fetched and at the moment it us but to take us to the sky four level we have to sign marquee signings initially for ridiculous amounts of money.

If any of the squad of 11 Benteke types got sold it would be at a profit and the model then becomes sustainable……. You keep replacing them with another Benteke type of player, or start paying more and getting a better calibre of player. It’s so painfully simple – you’re right Adam we just don’t have the brains or the willingness behind the scenes at the club.

But it won’t be like that. Firstly the manager might not get ell the money to spend, secondly if one benteke goes others will follow and thirdly if you can’t keep your best players together for a good 2-3 years you will never progress. Look at saints if they had kept all their players and added 2-3 decent ones they coukd have challenged top 4 next year. This is exactly the model a USA owners will follow makes great financial sense.

“Many have suggested a European League for the elite (financially elite that is). I do feel that this would leave a more level playing field for the rest.”

My god no, please don’t call for this setup.

The rest of the Prem that’s left would be relegated to the equivalent of Championship status, IE secondary level.
And how do we currently judge the Championship?
Well, for me, it’s totally not important, the three teams coming up apart.

If you create a European league, that’s where the kids will go. We’re already seeing it with the Sky 4/5/6 and it will only get worse, imo.

At least as things stand, you can support your local club.

That said, I predicted a Euro league years ago. It’s where the money is, sadly.

Agree badger but most kids in the uk and globally will support the winning clubs anyway. Plus the champions league is unofficially a European league anyway. I’d rather be in a competitive league that any team has a chance of winning than just being cannon fodder for the sky four. Remember it’s unlikely a super league would ever happen. If you accept the fact there would be approx 12-18 clubs maybe playing each other up to 4 times a year like Scotland it would be counter productive and boring. Also there is only one team that can win their league so finishing 2nd or below is seen as failure. Although I’m sure they would have a domestic fa cup type competition. These clubs are playing a dangerous game at the moment 3-4 clubs can win the prem and finishing 4th is seen as a success of sorts. In a super league 12-18 teams could win tge league making it much harder fir a team like UTD to look good. The reason teams like UTD are well supported and successful is that they are the big fish in a small pond, a super league would mean they could become cannon fodder themselves for teams like barca etc.

This rot can be tracked back further than the formation of the Premier League in 92- back to 81 when the rule was changed in favour of the big clubs allowing them to keep all their home gate receipts.
The 12 years prior to that 8 different teams had won the old 1st Division Title (Villa, Liverpool, Forest, Leeds, Derby, Arsenal, Everton and Leeds).
Post 81 and up until the formation of the EPL only 4 teams teams.

And the formation of this Pan European League- it will happen, it’s just a matter of time.
As long ago as 2011 clubs were threatening to bypass governing bodies and run their own affairs (a Kerry Packer type break away) as Karl-Heinz Rummenigge put it – a “revolution” for football: a European super league that would see the clubs seize control of their own affairs from the regulators.
In 2012 the then Barcelona President Sandro Rossell made a threat to UEFA, that major European clubs would form a breakaway continental league in 2014, so it’s on the cards just a matter of when and not if.

I’m sure it will happen and if it does then thank fuck. We will see a competitive league where finishing 1st is what matters not finishing 4th. The novelty of a European league will soon wear off let’s face it does anyone get excited if arsenal play barca for example. The novelty value has gone and teams like utd are unlikely to want to go in a league where they will. Ever dominate. Finishing 2nd will be seen as gross failure

I don’t think it’ll a league in format we are used to, it’ll be geared to making money, no League Champion as we know it but a play off.
Games played not at Old Trafford of The Nou Camp but Dubai, Shanghai or Timbuktu, sold to the highest bidder.
The end of football as we know it me thinks.

I’m not being carried away with the hype that we are doomed, every player that puts his boots on to play at one stage wants to be the best, Ive seen John Gregory win 11 games on the trot and teams could not play against us, why ? players was allowed to do their own thing in the game, not side to side or pass back but go forward every time. I’m waiting to see if strength and speed upsets other team’s and players wanting to be the best, I’m living in hope that Villa lifts itself to great days again. I banking on Keane to change our ideas with old players edging young one on, that’s not to much to hope for,is it? .